Board 8 > Anyone playing Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sounds like the PS4 version has a pretty nasty save corruption bug, but I'm playing on Switch just fine. It's a pretty faithful remake, only things they've taken out that I've noticed are unintended skips like hopping along the wall in Papu Papu Pyramid or that super high jump in Hot Air Skyway. It also adds all tracks and characters from Crash Nitro Kart, but rebalanced and adjusted to fit with the CTR gameplay mechanics.

And as of two days ago they're also adding completely new playable characters-the current batch are the four trophy girls from the original version of the game, plus Tawna from Crash 1. Datamining has revealed a bunch more; basically any significant Crash Bandicoot series character you can think of is probably coming, plus a few Spyro characters!

Playing online has made me less appreciative of the items in the game though, I kinda wish they could be turned off completely. A lot of races can get decided immediately at the start if someone manages to escape the opening salvo of item crates without getting hit by anything. Since the majority of items are only meant to hit someone right in front of you or behind you (and the two that can hit a far away first-place player usually hit everybody else too), if someone manages to pull away at the start it's very difficult for anyone to catch up, even a good player able to keep their boosts going. I never really noticed this problem before because I was always the one pulling away against AI opponents, which I just chalked up to the AI being bad.
---

Yeah, the items are pretty awful. Whoever gets out in first early on is going to win the race because the items make the rest of the pack a cluster fuck, so if you don't get out ahead early you have no chance to catch up, and there's no way to stop 1st with items.
---

I was thinking of renting this but the Redboxes near me don't carry Switch games yet.
---

StealThisSheen posted...

Yeah, the items are pretty awful. Whoever gets out in first early on is going to win the race because the items make the rest of the pack a cluster fuck, so if you don't get out ahead early you have no chance to catch up, and there's no way to stop 1st with items.

This problem happens in Mario kart too, but at least that series has lightning and blue shells.
---

swirIdude posted...

StealThisSheen posted...

Yeah, the items are pretty awful. Whoever gets out in first early on is going to win the race because the items make the rest of the pack a cluster fuck, so if you don't get out ahead early you have no chance to catch up, and there's no way to stop 1st with items.

This problem happens in Mario kart too, but at least that series has lightning and blue shells.

Well, yeah. Mario Kart's kinda the reverse, in that 1st place can get screwed over by items like the Blue Shell that don't hurt anybody else.

Though I think I'd rather that, of the two. CTR has literally no way to stop 1st place because any item that can hit them hits everybody, and 95% of the items function in a way that just screws anybody not in first over. The winner of the race is decided in like the first ten seconds. Whoever breaks away from the pack early and avoids the first item barrage has nothing to worry about for the rest of the race, while anybody that didn't is screwed no matter how skilled they are.
---

The PS4 save corruption bug has been fixed now. It was caused by the N. Tropy ghosts in Time Trial not accounting for the PS4 exclusive track, so you could have 32/31 ghosts.

I'm having a lot of fun with the game. I didn't care for Crash Nitro Kart on PS2, as I felt it was too slow and heavy compared to CTR, but I'm still happy that all its characters and tracks are back, and they've even grown on me with the faster paced gameplay of this game.

That may have been one source of save corruption, but there are still lots of people experiencing the problem even after the patch so there must be another cause too.
---

Been lovin it, such a good recreation of the mechanics and it aged so well. But I haven't tried online yet, nervous for the reasons you described.

I think the adventure mode is just more difficult in general too. On the oxide race you could tell that issue with the items where if you were stuck behind him you're screwed, but if you got ahead of him early then it was smooth sailing.

They have a long term update plan for the game so I wonder if they will add new modes that actually change gameplay and items to be more balanced. I think people would appreciate that, if they kept the original mode in tact.
---

I've never played any Crash racing games (or much Crash at all) but I think I'll just bite and buy this. I've been resisting buying MK8D because fuck paying full price again so soon for basically DLC; maybe this will satisfy me.
---

These complaints about items are hilarious because this is exactly what I've been pointing out for ages whenever people would say Mario Kart needed to remove the Blue Shell (or "balance" it by making it hit everyone in front of you). If you didn't have something like the Blue Shell to target the front of the pack, you just end up with runaway leads when all the racers are at the same skill level.
---

Dont get me wrong, I love the game. The content is great for a kart racer, and this Grand Prix method of giving new content is great for keeping people coming back. I just hope they address the item balance at some point.
---

not yet

playing Team Sonic Racing and can't justify buy a 2nd kart racer at the same time
---

TSR has good gameplay so it's very sad that everything else about it is pretty meh
---

Grand Kirby posted...

These complaints about items are hilarious because this is exactly what I've been pointing out for ages whenever people would say Mario Kart needed to remove the Blue Shell (or "balance" it by making it hit everyone in front of you). If you didn't have something like the Blue Shell to target the front of the pack, you just end up with runaway leads when all the racers are at the same skill level.

The point is obviously that neither are great solutions. CTR has a blue shell anyways, there's just a few more defensive options that the 1st place can have so it's not as bad as MK. Still, the best solution would be some way for 1st place to naturally have a disadvantage compared to 2nd. MK has a splitstream for example. But it would also be cool if like 1st place makes a mistake, it hurts 5x more than if 2nd makes a mistake. But if 1st place plays perfectly and pulls away from everyone, that is not a flaw in the design.
---

Another thing online play has illuminated is character balance. All-rounders and Turning characters have little chance of winning against competent racers of the other two styles. Whether Acceleration or Speed is better varies a little bit depending on the track (usually Speed, though there is a valid argument that items in online play give Accel more viability)
---

The one thing players could do to possibly kill leads is watch the minimap when they have a Clock and deploy it right as they see the leader go for a shortcut jump. Falling is pretty costly on its own, AND you have to give up on the shortcut.

Unfortunately you only get the clock when youre in the last few spots, so good players who might think about this usually wont get one
---

Some of these Grand Prix challenges are so boring

Do 20 laps of the most boring track in the game
Play boring battle mode 5 times on the same map
Win 10 single player races in certain karts, and by the way, Cup challenges don't count

I should have the final reward by the end of this weekend so fortunately I can just ignore that stuff afterward
---

I've been playing it but I don't enjoy it as much as MK8. It's still good though.

That said, I don't care for the Daily Challenges. Completely optional, but they unlock extra characters and are time-limited. Having played a lot of WoW, 'dailies' are the pits, no fun at all, straight busy work. At first they're okay, give it a week or so, but after that they become very repetitive and begin to snuff out my soul.
---

Yeah I'm leaning toward treating this like the handheld CTR that's I've always wanted, with bonus optional online play. It's brilliant for that and I wouldn't ask for more
---

It doesnt take a lot to unlock Tawna, everything after that is just kart customization and a skin for her so if you dont care about that stuff Grand Prix can be ignored. You can buy the other characters for 1500 coins each, which is an easy amount to get if you play on weekends when they give double coins
---